Appearance:

Yiska's not the tallest, clocking in at 5'8 or 5'9. He's relatively bulky-weighing perhaps 180 or 185, with the "Old man strength" of someone who's spent most of their time outside working as opposed to lifting weights in a gym. His hands are callused and a litany of scars etch his forearms and legs-not the methodical slashes of self-harm, but rather the sort he could spend all night detailing how he got. He's relatively hairy, albeit not much in the way of facial hair. Perhaps it all went to his scalp-Yiska wears a ponytail, shiny black hair that normally reaches about halfway down his neck. He has a scar across his face, stretching horizontally over his nose and cheeks, and his eyes are an unnatural golden color. His skin is deeply tanned, a mixture of the pigmentation he was born with and years in the sun. I don't know if they had sunscreen in the 40s, but regardless, Yiska sure as hell hasn't heard of it. Yiska walks slowly and deliberately, either with his head down watching his feet, or with his eyes scanning the horizon or flickering up to the sky. He has what some might call "resting bitch face", with a grim and solemn expression permanently stamped across his features. Having never had braces, his teeth are slightly crooked. His brow is wide and his nose a little thick, with a harsh jawline and stubby fingers. He nearly always wears, more or less, the same outfit-old, old jeans (perhaps SSR will make him switch to fatigues-they're fighting an uphill battle there) with boots or moccassins that have weathered more walking than any store-bought hiking shoe ever will. He wears a plain shirt (Or perhaps, goes bare-he doesn't really seem to mind) and a soft brown leather jacket. Inside, a number of pelts and furs and woven into the coat. He generally has an earring hanging from his left ear and occasionally a necklace resting against his chest. These are wood and bead and cloth and never gaudy gold or silver. Yiska has a heavy leather belt, some thick old thing that will probably still be usable in a hundred years. His features are hawkish and angled, and he has crows feet on his eyes. On his eyes? Around his eyes? What's the proper way to say that. His voice is a rough, low baritone-some old forgotten thing that sounds as if he's forgotten he had it every time he speaks.

Name: Yiska, but he goes by Riley.
Age: 26
Nationality: He is Navajo. He does not like being referred to as "American".

Three random facts about your character:

-Riley does not have very much experience at all with firearms and generally dislikes using them. He's not entirely sheltered from the outside world, but he has spent the vast majority of his life on the reservation and is simply unaccustomed to the frenzy and frivolity of the modern world. He firmly embraces his heritage.

-Riley does not play very well with others-he's particularly not fond of Americans, and is generally rather taciturn. He's not one to act very chummy, and detests small talk. He always dresses practically, and always wears a leather jacket lined with animal furs inside.

-Riley, while generally true to his word, is somewhat dark and cynical, and will find ways to twist the wording of his promises or use the specifics of what he said to escape bargains he doesn't truly agree with. It really depends on how much respect Riley has for the person he's dealing with.

-While Riley never had a college education or, arguably, a complete high school one, he reads prolifically, and as such is rather intelligent, even if he's not particularly well-versed in book smarts.

-As one may have surmised, speaks fluent Navajo and English, and served as a codebreaker for a brief time before he was reassigned to the SSR.

Mutant Power:

In Navajo legends, there exist stories of the yee naaldlooshii, of high priests who have embraced...darker applications of their abilities. Yiska is one such individual. As part of an under-the-table deal with the United States government, the Strategic Scientific Reserve, and the Navajo nation high officials, the US Government agreed on favorable tax exemptions, more autonomy for the nation. The Feds got codebreakers, the SSR got a skinwalker. That happens to be Yiska. Yiska, along with the others in the forbidden inner circle that signed this deal, are of the belief that these abilities are not scientific mutations but rather supernatural power. Attempting to convince him otherwise has not achieved much, and most of the SSR feels it's generally better to just nod and play along-mainly because, behind the clipboards and lab coats, there are a few suspicions...

To give a quick overview of Yiska's abilities, we'll start with what he's capable of in human form. While not on par with, say, Captain America, Yiska does have heightened physical abilities. He's more durable, has greatly enhanced senses, and is faster and stronger. Nothing that would qualify this to be his only power-he's not throwing around trucks or slapping bullets out of the air-but he's physically not going to be holding any of the team back. He's also got an intuitive grasp for nature, and becomes somewhat more vitalized in the wilderness-in buildings, urban areas, he's somewhat off. He prefers the feel of the fresh air or the quiet sky to the screeches of motorcars. Yiska does not communicate with animals in the sense of "Hey man, what's up?" "Aw nothing much", but he's able to communicate with them on a more instinctive and nuanced level. This does not equate to controlling them-most animals, however, generally hold an amount of respect and fear for Yiska. This may not be the case overseas, away from his native lands.

The real terror of a skinwalker, however, is that their name is somewhat literal-he can "walk" from one "skin" to another. In essence, shapeshifting. If Yiska has the pelt of an animal, he is able to assume its apex form-Yiska can effortlessly shift from human to grizzly bear to wolf to snake, provided he has the pelts. Without his jacket, Yiska is more limited in what he is capable of, and as such he guards it jealously. Yiska's not a particularly warm and fuzzy person to begin with, but he's especially cold when someone messes with his personal belongings. There are a great many powers attributed to a skinwalker, most of which are legend and fearful superstition. However, like any legend, there's a kernel of truth. Yiska is not capable of reading minds, but his heightened senses let him notice subtle facial twitches, pick up on the scent of fear, and with deduction and reasoning Yiska can usually make some pretty informed guesses. As a skinwalker, Yiska is capable of inducing fear in others-this is not crippling, and it is not anything tremendous. Really, it's nothing that wouldn't have happened anyway-if you saw a mockingbird turn into a bear and rip someone's arm off, you were probably not going to react calmly to begin with. This, of course, is essentially the same reaction that people would have to any other mutant-it's more pronounced in animals, whom Yiska can terrify with comparatively little effort. He requires direct, prolonged eye contact to induce this in humans.

Shapeshifting into humans is more difficult-Yiska is capable of doing so, but it takes more time and effort to convincingly do so. He is capable of mimicking human or animal sounds, and where his feet tread, Yiska leaves neither sound nor footprints. And, while not a supernatural power, Yiska is trained as a Navajo witch-he's familiar with a number of poisons and old tribal remedies, which are of questionable effectiveness in the era of modern medicine. He also, by virtue of growing up on a narrowminded, we'll-resist-change-at-all-costs inner sect of a reservation, is quite familiar with his people's history, culture, and tradition, and has spent a great deal of his time outside. He has zero trouble navigating the wilderness, hunting, or making use of a knife, tomahawk, or bow. He's resourceful, pretty good at sewing and tanning, and generally doesn't need much to be content. He likes poetry and sketching. He is quite durable and resistant to damage, and will generally heal up from most wounds given time to lick his wounds. He's tough, strong, and fast, particularly so in animal form.

There are two lethal weaknesses to a skinwalker: speaking his full name, and shooting him with a bullet tipped in white ash. The SSR strongly suspects these weaknesses to be placebos, but they are no less real to Yiska. No one outside the reservation knows of his real name (unless, of course, his elders were talked into giving the SSR leverage...), and Yiska enjoys dismantling firearms left unattended. Yiska also is averse to using modern technology, even in situations when it is infinitely more convenient to do so: he does so as a quiet sign of resistance to the SSR, whom he's not fond of, and to the US Government in general, whom he's even less fond of. He's doing this job as per his elders' orders, and because he does recognize the genuine wrongs being done by the Nazi Government (Yiska, however, is quick to point out the evils of the Americans, British, Russians, etc as well). Yiska, at some primal level (something that is accentuated by his powers, which darkly, morbidly, yearn to be used, to be let free) also enjoys violence, and has awaited the chance, across the ocean, to see what he is well and truly capable of accomplishing. God have mercy on the Germans, or any Americans who don't have witnesses around.

Biography:

Yiska grew up on the reservation, a relatively sheltered life-there's plenty of troubles all around, however. The difference is that Yiska was raised with an extremely "us vs. them" mentality. Without delving into the sensitive politics and murky history of these issues, Yiska grew up under a roof that firmly attributed all problems-moral, financial, and logistical-to the past and to the current US Government. Yiska aims to break FDR's arms to match his legs if ever presented with the opportunity. From a young age, Yiska grew up with a rather intense hatred for the outside, and generally treats most outsiders with the same cold disdain. He was never warm and fuzzy to anyone, however-quiet and reserved, Yiska simply preferred to be by himself, or to keep to himself whenever he was in social situations. He simply didn't see the need for a lot of frivolity, and had a rather ascetic view to life. While others blew their paychecks on liquor and tobacco, comic books and gasoline, he never saw the need for it. Yiska's a bit of a killjoy.

As he grew up-studying, learning, he stood a bit apart from his peers. Some talked of leaving the reservation, finding work elsewhere, becoming lawyers or doctors or what have you. None of this ever appealed to Yiska. He simply felt at home where he was, and anything more than a hundred miles from his home didn't interest him. There was an entire forgotten world just within his reach, and so many were willing to overlook it for paychecks and fast cars. Childish. Foolish. This mentality caught the eyes of some of the higher-ups-the men behind the men in charge of the nation, and as deals were cut under the table with FDR's administration in preparation for the eventual war with the Germans, Yiska was bred into the weapon he is today.

Yiska's birth and circumstances shaped a great deal of his mentality. He's paranoid, reserved, and distrusting. He will generally assume the worst possible outcome of a situation and prepare accordingly. He identifies very closely with his people, and fears losing that identity-he tends to view those who come back from the outside as traitors of a sort. If there was another Civil War, Yiska would sign up gleefully, and when the US government was overthrown he'd turn against that one too. He dislikes authority and dislikes institutions of any kind, and refuses to see any possible benefits they could offer. Yiska sees the war as stupid, and harbors about as much patriotism for America as Hitler does. Yiska developed a rather slanted code of morality, wherein he somewhat hypocritically is quick to pounce on the misdealings of outsiders whilst excusing anything similar that he does in turn. He does not claim to be a good person. Yiska is not needlessly cruel, however, and is notably kinder to women and children than men. He's never outright hostile-he doesn't start fights or insult others, he simply stays cold and quiet. Yiska's also not a big talker in general, and doesn't see the need for most conversation. If you took Yiska on a car ride, he'd probably speak enough to tell you when to pull over and which exits to take. He just doesn't see the need for it. Yiska appreciates the beautiful things in life, and can strike up a rapport for others who appreciate the same. He's very quick to write people off, but does issue grudging respect-Yiska admires strength and excellence in all its forms, whether it's art or battle or intellect. One also can't accuse him of hedonism, as he lives a fairly spartan lifestyle, and displays indifference to most vices. He's very kind to animals, and generally makes hunting as merciful and quick as possible. Given his abilities, this is not difficult.

He also operates under a rather warped code of honor. He will keep his word if he gives it, albeit this is subject to his own interpretation. Deal with Yiska cautiously-if he has respect for someone, he'll keep close to the spirit of his agreement. If not...he holds to the letter of the law. He also tries to avoid outright lying, and will tend to avoid killing unarmed opponents or those who are wounded. As a misanthrope, he holds pretty equal dislike for all belligerents in this conflict, so he'll treat Americans and Nazis with around the same level of respect. He doesn't tolerate violence to women or children and dislikes cursing. He views violence as a way of life, and is looking forward to testing his capabilities after two and a half decades of holding back. He is also fond of stories, and will reluctantly admit that the abundance of written books is nice, as opposed to the reservation's somewhat limited library. He'll also listen dutifully to any story someone's willing to tell, and gets very annoyed if they're interrupted. Yiska also likes riddles, puzzles, and anything that requires meditating on a problem for a while before coming up with a solution.